1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, a computer program product, and an image forming system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology for calculating environmental load information indicating a load imposed on the environment in a process from the production until the disposal of a product is known. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-150695 discloses an image forming apparatus that calculates environmental load information during image formation. More specifically, the image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application conditions and the number of dots of image data, a toner amount consumed during image formation and calculates a CO2 emission amount (environment load information) from the calculated toner amount.
However, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-150695, the image forming apparatus calculates a toner amount consumed during image formation without taking into account at all an amount of a non-transferred toner not transferred onto transfer media (e.g., an intermediate transfer belt and recording paper) during transfer of a toner image. Therefore, the calculation accuracy of the environmental load information is insufficient.
Therefore, there is a need for an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, a computer program product, and an image forming system that can improve the calculation accuracy of environmental load information.